Fear in the FX market
Now, it may sound strange, why would a trader be scared? I mean, it’s not like he’s risking his life (Well, make sure you manage your risk…If you don’t then yep… I guess)
A good FX trader executes his trading plan with no fear.
A losing trader does not execute his trading plan BECAUSE of fear
Have you ever not taken a trade because you were scared? Scared of losing, scared of being wrong, scared of not being good enough, scared of losing money, scared of what other people will think of you etc?
Hell, I have…
The main idea behind this blog post comes form the book “Way of Warrior Trader” in it there’s a great section about fear
According to the author – there are three instinctual fears: fear of loss, fear of pain and the fear of the unkown
I mean, why are we scared of getting killed by an alligator?
1- Afraid of the pain you would experience while getting chewed up by the alligator’s jaws
2- Afraid of losing your identity as you’re being digested in the alligator’s stomach
3- Afraid of not knowing where you’ll end up two days later after passing through the alligator’s guts
Way of the Warrior Trader
Makes sense right?
I mean I wouldn’t want to be killed by an alligator (well, definitely would be interesting)…
So why are we talking about this?
(Nearly) all fears we are faced with are either anticipatory or reflective in nature
Fear of the future
We are scared of the unknown, the unknown we are all faced with is the future.
We don’t know what will happen today, and even less so in the markets since we don’t control them (kinda wish we could manipulate them for my own benefit…)
Not being an author I’ll quote the book again because he puts it better than I could:
To render repeated attention to issues that are currently outside our perimeter of control is a waste of life force and a distraction away from the situations we do have an element of control over in the present moment.
Way of the Warrior Trader
Instead of being worried about what will potentially happen in the future, focus on what you can control – and that is the execution of your trading plan.
So what are a handful of tips to control your fear when it comes to placing a trade?
1- Forecast every single morning, and only take the trades you forecasted
2- Have a trading plan – and know the strike rates and expected return every set-up has
3- Backtest, that’s the only way to do the first two points, so keep backtesting
4- Focus on your breath – try to breathe deeply into your abdomen, it’s linked with the vegus nerve that will make you more calm (and also reduce heart beat I believe)
5- Meditate (eheh you thought I’d have given up on this one by now) it will make focusing on the present moment and push away all thoughts a lot easier
Scared of success?
Being scared of succcess, may sound like a strange thing, but it happens to a large amount of forex traders and is one of the main reason why traders blow up their accounts
We all get what we want from the market in the long run
The biggest challenge you will face in the FX market is your mental side. Make sure your mindset is in the right place.
Once again, I swear this is (probably) the last time I quote him for this blog post
Nothing can weaken your resolve to follow through with a plan more than the lack of genuine desire to achieve the end result.
Without such a plan, you can be assured that one or more of the four poisons of doubt, fear, confusion and surprise will eventually infect your mind. Effective planning will always help to minimize (if not eliminate) these poisons.
Way of the Warrior Trader
Accept the loss, understand that you don’t know the future and you’re just playing out an edge, take the position and be happy whatever happens next because you executed your plan.
Executing your plan is the goal, ignore the end result.
Cool video by AK Fallible about fear in the market! Love his channel, definitely would reocmmend
Make sure you’re not afraid to take the trade if it fits your trading plan
Yep, a trading plan, backtesting and forecasting is key, what can I say 🙂
By having a trading plan you outsource the trading (to you) so you get to delegate the responsibility! Definitely checkout the last part of that video tho – one of my fav. scenes in Billions hands down ahah
If you think that it’s the mental side that’s holding you back definitely check out the book, I did enjoy it and hit me up with your questions!
I love digging into peoples brains 🙂
Anyway, have a good one, I hope you enjoyed this blog post! Let me know in the comments if you want me to do more post like this!
Onwards,
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